Attachment 05 WIC Written Responses v.2.docx

Attachment 5: WIC Written Responses

WIC Required Written Responses Project Management and Organization – WIC RFP Section 1.1 Describe the following:

1) The Offeror’s degree of coordination expected between the EBT Contractor’s personnel and the State’s EBT Director. (See requirement 1.1.1)

2) The procedures and timelines for notifying the States about potential and/or actual problems. (See requirement 1.1.2)

3) The Offeror’s approach to decision-making authority that the assigned EBT Contractor personnel have within the EBT Contractor’s organization in relation to this EBT project. (See requirement 1.1.3)

4) The Offeror’s approach to the project management structure. (See requirement 1.1.4)

5) The Offeror’s approach and procedures they will follow to notify the states when the State’s normal contact is expected to be unavailable, and the EBT Contractor must provide the State with contact information for an alternative or back-up contact. (See requirement 1.1.5)

6) The Offeror’s approach to lines of authority, communication, escalation, and problem resolution procedures that will be established between the prime EBT Contractor and any subcontractors. (See requirement 1.1.7)

7) The Offeror’s approach to staffing during the conversion phase and operations phases. (See requirement 1.1.8)

8) The Offeror’s plan for on-site requests for each state. (See requirement 1.1.9) Project Staffing – WIC RFP Section 1.2 Include the following:

1) The resume of the Offeror’s proposed WSEA Project Director. (See requirement 1.2.1)

2) The resume for each of the Offeror’s proposed State Project Managers. (See requirement 1.2.2)

3) The following information for proposed key personnel:. (See requirement 1.2.7)

a) Staff name;

b) Position title;

c) role and responsibilities;

d) percent of time on the project;

e) resume of all key staff; and

f) dentification of positions to be hired upon contract award

4) The letter of intent to accept employment if any of the proposed key personnel or project managers are not currently in the employ of the Offeror. (See requirement 1.2.98) Interfaces – WIC RFP Section 2.2 Describe the following:

1) The Offeror’s approach to system development. (See requirement 2.12.2)

2) The Offeror’s approach to collaborating with the MIS Maintenance Entity in interface development or modifications. (See requirement 2.2.2.3)

3) The Offeror’s approach to system maintenance. (See requirement 2.2.3) Settlement and Reconciliation Processes - WIC RFP Section 2.9 Describe the following:

1) The Offeror’s approach to daily settlement and reconciliation

2) The Offeror’s approach to managing and tracking retailer, Third Party Processor (TPP), eWIC Service Provider, and State Agency initiated account adjustments Cardholder Mobile Application - WIC RFP Section 2.11 Describe the following:

1) The Offeror’s approach to both Option 1 and Option 2 for supporting a Cardholder Mobile Application (See requirements 2.11.5 – 2.11.6.2) System Up-Time and Reliability – WIC RFP Section 3.0 Provide down-time statistics for the last three (3) years:

1) Total number of outages for each year

2) Percentage of down-time for each year

3) Average downtime per outage

4) Root cause(s) of the outages

Describe the following:

5) The Offeror’s failover processes. (See requirements Section 3.3)

6) How the Offeror’s eWIC host system is designed to avoid system down-time. (See requirements Section 3.3)

7) How the Offeror manages downstream outages (Third Party Processors (TPPs), Networks, etc.) (See requirements Section 3.3)

8) Mitigation strategies used to avoid down-time. (See requirements Section 3.3)

9) Procedures for communicating with the State Agency and vendors when outages occur. (See requirements Section 3.3)

10) The Offeror’s approach to testing system changes. (See requirements Section 3.5) System Testing – WIC RFP Section 6.0 Describe the following:

1) The Offeror’s approach to collaborating with state testers for user acceptance testing. (See requirement 6.1.1)

2) The Offeror’s approach to managing multiple environments (production, test, development, etc.) (See requirements 6.1.5 and 6.1.6)

3) The Offeror’s approach to refreshing and maintaining data in test and training environments. (See requirement 6.1.7)

4) The Offeror’s approach to performance testing. (See section 6.6)

5) The Offeror’s approach to failover testing. (See section 6.7) Vendor Support Services – WIC RFP Section 2.12 Describe the following

1) The Offeror’s approach to vendor assistance and customer service Vendor Management – WIC RFP Section 2.15 Describe the following

1) The Offeror’s approach to management and support of stand-beside devices. (See requirements within section 2.15)

2) How communications are managed between the State Agency, WIC vendors and the Offeror. (See requirements within section 2.15)

3) The Offeror’s approach to managing and conducting Retailer Certification’s with the State Agency, vendor, and TPP. (See requirements within section 2.15)

4) The Offeror’s approach to handling systems that were certified by another eWIC Services Provider. (See requirements within section 2.15)

5) The Offeror’s approach to APL management (monitoring how often vendors are downloading the APL). (See requirements within section 2.15) Contract Transition/System Conversion – WIC RFP Section 5 Describe the following:

1) Offeror’s approach to completing contract transition/system conversion prior to the current eWIC Service Provider contract end date. (See section 5.1)

2) How the Offeror will ensure a smooth transition with minimal disruptions to WIC authorized vendors to include the approach for deploying stand-beside point-of-sale (POS) terminals. (See section 5.2)

3) How the Offeror will ensure a smooth transition with minimal disruptions to WIC stakeholders to include approaches to card replacement and a seamless transition of customer service operations (IVR, portals, and live agents). (See section 5.2) Security Requirements RFP Section 7 Describe the following:

1) The Offeror’s approach to meeting the Alaska Security Requirements. (See requirement 7.1.8) Proposed Hardware The Offeror shall provide the make, model, features, and any additional narrative that may be relevant for all hardware proposed. If at any time during the contract the Offeror expects to change the hardware provided to the State Agencies, the State Agencies must receive at least 90 days’ notice.

1) Single function Stand-beside device

2) Multi-function Stand-beside device

3) Wireless stand-beside device

4) External PIN pad

5) Mag stripe card reader